Federal Budget Policy

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

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Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

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Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

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Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

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more news

AMT as Economic Stimulus? That's Just Crazy!

Jan 15, 2009 by Adam Hughes*

Yesterday afternoon I came across a crazy headline in the CQ Midday Update email we get here at the Budget Brigade and I had to read it twice because I couldn't believe it. "AMT 'Patch' May Be Added to Economic Recovery Package," it read. Hmmm...that just seems crazy, totally crazy. What exactly does patching the Alternative Minimum Tax have to do with economic recovery? I'll tell you - absolutely nothing.

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Revised SCHIP Legislation Passes House

Jan 14, 2009 by Adam Hughes*

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Notes from the Economy: The Bush Record

Jan 14, 2009 by Craig Jennings

"It's almost a lost economic decade." -- Mark Zandi, co-founder of and chief economist at Moody's Economy.com

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Business Tax Cuts as Stimulus, By The Numbers

Jan 13, 2009 by Craig Jennings

Citizens for Tax Justice has released a report on how the proposed tax breaks in the Obama stimulus plan would affect the economy. The bottom line:

Family tax cuts could be net beneficial, but only if they're targeted to low-income families.
Business tax cuts are pretty much a waste.

In the report's discussion of the Obama plan's (reported) Net Operating Loss Carryback provision, CTJ explains why such a tax cut would be somewhat less than stimulative:

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House Adopts Changes in New Rules Package

The 111th Congress began work on Jan. 5 when the House approved a new rules package, including further earmark reforms and a modification of pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) rules.

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Oversight Report Highlights Lack of Transparency in TARP

When Congress passed the legislation that created the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), it authorized the creation of the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP) to monitor the execution of the program by the Treasury Department. The panel is required to issue reports on a regular basis, and its latest report, released Jan. 9, indicates that the Treasury Department either cannot or will not answer the questions posed to it in the COP's previous report, released on Dec. 10, 2008.

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Hiccup in Plan to Pass SCHIP Expansion

Jan 13, 2009 by Adam Hughes*

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Obama, Frank Aim for TARP Improvements

Jan 12, 2009 by Craig Jennings

Today, President-elect Obama asked Congress to release the remaining $350 billion in TARP funds.

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Notes from the Economy: Unemployment

Jan 9, 2009 by Craig Jennings

The jobs report from the Bureau of Labor statistics reports that the unemployment rated jumped from 6.8 percent to 7.2 percent (a 25-year high) in December as payrolls dropped by 524,000.

While these numbers were not unexpected, their realization will add to the mounting pressure on Congress to have a stimulus bill on soon-to-be-President Obama's desk ASAP.

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Business Tax Cuts as Stimulus: Somewhat Less Than Effective

Jan 8, 2009 by Craig Jennings

This week, I've been considering the value of tax cuts as an effective economic stimulus. On the one hand, government spending appears to provide the most bang-for-the-buck.